Twelve in hospital after armoured vehicle crash in Shoalwater Bay, QLD

Two armoured vehicles have collided during a military exercise in central Queensland, injuring a dozen Singaporean troops.

Transcript

00:00Well, it's certainly quite a concerning incident that's unfolded in central Queensland.

00:06What we do know so far is that there were reports yesterday evening around 7.40pm of

00:13a Hunter Armoured Fighting Vehicle, which is a vehicle that's typically used in the

00:17Singapore Army and it actually looks like a tank.

00:19The reports that it crashed into another tank while attempting to head back to base at the

00:24Shoalwater Bay Training Facility.

00:26Now that facility is in Rockhampton, a little bit, two hours north of Rockhampton in central

00:31Queensland and in a statement that's been issued by the Singapore Armed Forces, they've

00:36confirmed that 12 of their defence personnel were injured in this situation and they were

00:41rushed to hospital.

00:42Now Queensland Ambulance Service have said that they treated 10 patients at the Rockhampton

00:47Airport that were airlifted from the training base to the airport by military Chinook.

00:53They triaged them there before transporting those patients to Rockhampton Hospital in

00:58stable conditions, but we've also learned of another patient who was in a more serious

01:02condition.

01:03They were directly flown from their base to the Rockhampton Hospital by military helicopter

01:09and they're receiving further treatment at the hospital, but we still wait for an update

01:13on those conditions, but the Australian Defence Department has also issued a statement and

01:18confirmed that no ADF soldiers or vehicles were involved in this situation and they are

01:23continuing to provide further assistance for the Singapore Armed Forces during this time,

01:29but it's understood that this effectively unfolded during a military exercise, an annual

01:34joint military exercise known as Exercise Wallaby.

01:37Typically it sees about 6,000 troops descend upon the area during this time.

01:41It runs for about three months and usually there's an increase of aircraft activity around

01:46the region from the months of October through to November, but as a result of this, the

01:51Singapore Army have issued a safety pause during the exercise to sort of remind their

01:55personnel of maintaining that safe distance, especially when operating heavy machine vehicles

02:00like this one, so we wait to see what exactly unfolds, but there are questions remaining

02:06over the circumstances that led up to this incident.